Mississippi Library Association

Faulkner and Material Culture: Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha, 2004

Urgo, Joseph R. and Ann J. Abadie (eds.). Faulkner and Material Culture: Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha, 2004.
Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007.
155 pp. $50.00 (hardback)

Faulkner and Material Culture is a compilation of eight papers originally presented at the thirty-first Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference in 2004. The uniting theme is the intersection of the real world of Oxford in Lafayette County, Mississippi, and Faulkner’s imaginary world of Jefferson in Yoknapatawpha County. However, the reader will find a good bit of variety here.
Charles S. Aiken discusses the author’s treatment of five types of New South buildings. Jay Watson focuses on Light in August and the parallels to be found there between the timber/furniture industry and social dynamics. Patricia Yeager examines the role of trash, bodily waste, and decay in early twentieth century aesthetics in general and Faulkner’s work in particular. Kevin Railey points out that Flags in the Dust (criticized as disjointed) is more coherent when the material objects within it are viewed as symbolic of economic and social status. D. Matthew Ramsey discusses Faulkner’s work on Hollywood movies and its effect on female characters in his later work. Miles Orvell focuses on local community and its place in the larger world, with particular attention to confederate soldier monuments as agents of memory in a time of great change. Katherine R. Henninger takes photographic metaphors as the subject of her paper, and T. J. Jackson Lears contrasts Faulkner’s treatment of mass consumable goods with that of more carefully crafted objects.
This collection of articles emphasizes how the societal changes Faulkner experienced in the early twentieth century, and the dichotomy of holding onto the old while embracing (or at least accepting) the new, were preserved through the representation of material culture in his fiction.
While some of the writers stray a little far a field in trying to prove their points, Faulkner and Material Culture is, on the whole, a fine compilation of scholarly works. The book is most relevant for Faulkner scholars, but it also has broader implications for the study of the interaction between societal conditions and artistic expression. It is recommended for all academic libraries.

Diane DeCesare Ross
Curator of Manuscripts, Archives, and Digital Collections
University of Southern Mississippi

Entry Filed under: Book Reviews
Posted on: January 5th, 2009